Growth of e-books market brings challenges for educators and booksellers

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Fortunately for Kennedy Book Store on the University of Kentucky campus, the Wildcats are national champions. The store’s general manager, Carol Behr, said Kennedy Book Store has sold plenty of national basketball championship paraphernalia in the past year to make up for slowing revenues from traditional textbook sales in favor of electronic textbooks. “We’ve seen so many changes, so we’re used to changes,” said Behr, who has been the store’s general manager for 21 years and is the founder’s daughter. “This is a big one, but we’ve learned to go with it.”
For Kennedy Book Store, approximately 75 percent of business done is on textbooks, both new and used. The store typically makes 20 to 25 percent profit on physical textbooks, but as little as 8 percent on e-textbooks that are purchased with a code from the store.
As Behr pointed out, the shift to electronic/online textbooks is not a shock to anyone, but, in light of a recent push from U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan to go all digital for school textbooks, and the increasing prevalence of personal tablets, laptops and smartphones, physical textbooks may soon be a thing of yesteryear.
The argument from Duncan, according to a recent article from The Philadelphia Inquirer, is that American schools must adopt this new technology in order to keep up with other countries that are outperforming U.S. students. Digital textbooks allow for interactive content, videos and more frequently updated information — and a more competitive learning experience overall, Duncan argued.
But not so fast, said Fayette County Public Schools Educational Diagnostician Jennifer Milburn. While she concurs that online and electronic school learning tools are extremely valuable and are doing wonderful things in the classroom, she also sees the effects that quick information can have on her third-grader.
“Things are so instant now,” she explained. “If we have a question, we Google it and have instant answers, versus using problem-solving skills to think through an answer. I see my daughter having less patience to really sit down and try to figure out homework problems that she struggles with, because she wants an instant answer, and she doesn’t want to wait out the time it takes to figure something out.”
And then there is the “screen time” factor. With television, computer use, video games, iPhones and movies, kids have so much digital exposure already. Add in work throughout much of the day at schools, and she said there is a fear that it could all be too much for young students — not to mention the toll it might take on their health.
On the other hand, digitizing textbooks would make working at home easier.
“This might possibly eliminate the ‘I forgot my book’ excuse for lacking homework and completing assignments in the classroom,” she pointed out.
But access is a whole other issue.
Tates Creek High School teacher Carly Gesin said her fear with digital textbooks is that not all students have reliable computers and Internet access at home.
“It’s a nice idea, but isn’t realistic,” she said. “It’s another thing that people see as the solution to all our education woes, but all it does is create a new set of problems. I’m not saying we shouldn’t head in that direction, but people need to be realistic and conscientious of those issues.”
If that hurdle could be overcome, then digital textbooks could be very cost efficient for everyone to have total access to all classroom books. At her school, she said, physical textbooks are still a must, because iPads or laptops are not provided.
In Fayette County Public Schools, Jack Hays, director of student achievement, said there already are some pockets in the district that have gone digital.
“In some ways, we’re just opening the doors and exploring,” he said. “We have a number of pilot-type projects in place, where schools are either buying kids devices or letting them bring their own. We continually look for grant funds to expand this work, recognizing it’s good for kids for many, many reasons.
“In addition to this device work, we have used some digital programming for a number of years,” Hayes continued. “For the last few years, when our schools were provided state textbook funds, instructional materials we purchased also came with online materials and digital supplemental texts.”
It is a strategy similar to that which many University of Kentucky professors employ, according to Behr.
She said textbook bundling is a popular practice among professors and the store’s inventory reflects it; now 70 percent of Kennedy’s textbooks are new, compared to 30 percent used. The numbers were previously more balanced, but it is the only way for students to have more current information with market competition coming from e-textbooks.
“A textbook used to have a shelf life of five to eight years, and now two years is old,” Behr explained.
She added that now publishers try to thwart the used-book market with bundling and wrapping (including supplementary materials such as discs, etc.), and professors and universities often have negotiations with publishers to have custom editions made of certain books. Behr said this ultimately makes textbooks more costly for students because they can’t buy a used copy as easily.
On the other hand, Behr noted that e-textbooks are proving to be almost as costly for students, despite claims of savings. She said students often end up printing hundreds of pages from the electronic versions, and the e-books have a very short shelf life. Students cannot sell them back like traditional textbooks.
Behr said some students still simply do not want an electronic book.
“It’s growing a little bit ... You have students who are young and adaptable and are used to this, but professors may not be,” she said. “They may not want to change their syllabus, they like their book and how it is, and all they want to do is reprint it with new dates.”
Even though some publishers are helping steer the ship in the electronic direction, Behr added that some are nervous that textbooks will go the way of the music industry, where “everything is so open that nobody’s getting any revenue back.”
The idea of a more open campus with electronic everything “sounds so lovely, but it’s really not — not if someone worked hard to research and write the textbook and they aren’t getting any credit for it. Eventually that is going to dry up, and no one is going to want to do it,” she added.
Kennedy Book Store is doing its best to adapt. They have taken to selling more accessories, even adding popular lines like Lily Pulitzer and Vera Bradley. They have also started selling convenience store items, although, she said, “you’ve got to sell a lot of Pop Tarts to make up for textbooks.”
In the classroom, Gesin hopes that administrators, parents and teachers alike will realize that other problems — like home life and attitudes about education — also will be addressed in figuring out America’s educational woes rather than jumping to e-textbooks as the next greatest thing. She said no modern tools will be good enough if students do not value education.
Hayes added that modern students will have endless content to explore with electronic learning but now will need to be taught how to process and manage all of the information coming at them.